


A Fox of Ruby and Gold

by Leonawriter



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Barian World, Character as Barian, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-03
Updated: 2013-11-03
Packaged: 2017-12-31 09:28:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1030059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>IV had been the first to die, and the first to due at Nasch's hand who he'd known so well whilst he was a human.  However, IV had not come back, and upon their return to the changing Barian world, they realised why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Fox of Ruby and Gold

He was there by the time they came back.

Small, a gold-and-red blur, arms flailing as he ran from place to place.

Mizael looked to their leader with rare uncertainty in his eyes, put immediately off balance from the moment he recognised what this must be.

"Nasch…"

"I know."

A youngling.  They’d never had one, in.. oh, so long.  Too long.  They’d just kept disappearing, and never returning.

"But… _h- how?!”_

The question was a valid one.  Although it could be wondered if it should instead be _who_ , and if that was in fact what Mizael had first meant to say.  After all, a Barian was born from the rocks when someone involved with them died.

Many had died, in the war.  Most, they were sure, had returned to life.  Such was the power that resulted when Yuuma, Yuuma who never gave up, who had never wanted anyone to fight and merely to have fun in their duels, wielded the Numeron Code for even a few _minutes_.

Nasch stared, unable to focus on any one feature for long since the youngling was moving so fast, but he saw yellow, a face with purple-red eyes, and vivid red hair, spiked outward like flames.

He knew that face… _how could he know that face?_

Before he realised what he was doing, he had walked a few paces away from the others, and started to bend down onto one knee, so as to better see and be on the youngling’s eye level and not scare him - or her, but he had a _feeling_ that it was a ‘he’ - and it wasn’t long until he had a small heap of Barian youngling in his arms.

"Hi!  ‘M sorry. Woke up an’, an’…"

Nasch put a finger onto the youngling’s forehead, and could almost have been amused to see big eyes try and follow it, getting the young one cross-eyed for a moment.

"It’s all right."  He was just relieved that the kid hadn’t gotten himself into dangerous trouble while they were gone.  "We’re here now."

"Mnnn…. who’s ‘we’, missuh?"

"I am Nasch.  And there, there are Mizael, Durbe, Alit, Gilag, Vector, and Merag."

He wished those eyes weren’t so familiar.  He wished those markings weren’t so clear in his memory.

He might no longer be ‘Kamishiro Ryouga’, or ‘Shark’ - not that Yuuma cared much for that, Yuuma would, especially after he’d told them that _there’s no need to fight any more,_ call Nasch whatever he wanted - but he still remembered.  He would always remember all of it.

And IV… Thomas Arclight… had been the first of his friends to die because of him, at his hand, because he was ‘in the way’.

"Naasha… Naschar…Dubhe…"

He continued to try and pronounce the names of the lords, often failing, and over the course most of the others came to their level to try and correct him, even Mizael unable to resist the pull of a young one of their own species - no matter how haughty he was still about the idea that they were once _humans_ , the child calling him ‘Miimiza’ one too many times did the trick.

Nasch was caught off guard by a hand on his shoulder, and a quick glance up revealed it to be Durbe’s.

"You know who he is, don’t you."

If he’d had the lungs and breath to do so, Nasch would have sighed.

"Mn.  I think I do."

At the moment, the youngling was still distracted by Mizael and Alit.

"You know that it would be unwise to enlighten either him or the… others, just yet."

Nasch nodded, feeling a weariness settle upon him in that moment.

If they allowed IV, if that was indeed who he was, to regain his memories of his past life too soon, then it could damage him irreparably. It was hard enough to reconcile one to the other as an adult, or even teenager… but for a _child_ , in Barian terms barely _born_ …

He could not be allowed to know.  Not yet.  And if they informed III, or V, then they would _demand_ either custody, or to be allowed to at least see him.  And that, he knew could potentially spark memories, and questions.

It wasn’t fair.  On any of them - IV, his family, Yuuma, them, for being the ones to keep everyone in the dark, and he knew that when things came to light, they would be blamed, and treated as though there had been a betrayal of trust.

But Nasch would prefer the health of mind of one of his own in the long term as opposed to the short term happiness of a few.

He was brought out of his thoughts by the very subject of them tapping on his knee.

"Nashh, ‘m I got one?"

He tensed, freezing in place from the question he should have _known_ would come up sooner or later.

A name.

They could call him IV still, or Thomas, because that was who they knew he was.  They _could_.

But that was who he _was_ , and who he _had been_ , and he wasn’t IV or Thomas any more.

The youngling was staring into his face, as though searching for the answer to all of life’s problems.

"…Lukaida.  You’re Lukaida, little one."

"Oh," he said.  "Okay."

Then Nasch found himself having little arms held out to him.

He remembered Iris, and how he’d lost her, lost while he was away and thinking that his fights were more important than her safety.

He picked Lukaida up. 

Things would be different, now.  They would learn from their mistakes, all of them.  And for some, they would have a new chance, one where the mistakes of the past could be forgotten, if only for a little while.

....

AN: I came up with the idea a week ago maybe, around when the episode first aired, and the idea grew due to my temptation to play the (older version of) Barian IV in Dreamwidth rp.  I _was_ going to wait until I was caught up to fic any of it, but then this happened anyway...


End file.
